From Botswana to the Atlantic: Why This Row Exists
Updated: Sep 9
Botswana is landlocked. There's no coastline, no ocean-rowing tradition, no obvious reason someone from there would end up alone in the Atlantic in a 7-metre carbon-and-solar-powered rowing boat. And yet that's exactly where Marc Germiquet — founder of Bush Ways Safaris and the Bush Ways Foundation — found himself in December 2024, and where he's headed again in December 2027.
Why an ocean row, for a Botswana cause?
The connection isn't really about geography. It's about what Marc believes conservation actually depends on.
"Conservation has got nothing to do with animals. It's got everything to do with people. If you don't educate people, you won't have any kind of conservation or desire to look after wildlife — it will simply be seen as a commodity."
That belief is the entire foundation — literally — of Bush Ways Foundation. Marc built Bush Ways Safaris from nothing over almost three decades: today it runs a fleet of 60 vehicles and 8 lodges and camps out of Maun, employing 200 staff and hosting around 15,000 tourists a year. Somewhere along the way, that business turned into a platform for community investment across Northern Botswana — education, health, social welfare, and environmental conservation, all rooted in the same idea that people come first.
Where the row actually connects
Entry into the World's Toughest Row requires competitors to fundraise for a cause. For most entrants, that's a logistical requirement. For Marc, it became the entire reason to do it.
His 2024/25 crossing raised funds specifically for another pre-school for Bush Ways Foundation — adding to two the foundation has already built in rural communities. The proceeds were earmarked for a third school in Mababe village positioned between the Okavango Delta, Khwai, Savuti, and Chobe National Park.
Why it works
There's something genuinely fitting about the pairing: an extreme, solitary physical challenge raising money for early childhood education in some of the most remote parts of Botswana. Both take patience. Both take years of unglamorous groundwork before any result shows. And both, in Marc's telling, come back to the same idea — invest in people, and everything else follows.
He's the first person from landlocked Botswana to attempt a solo ocean row. In December 2027, he does it again — same ocean, same cause, same belief that the two are more connected than they first appear.
